


i'm older

by bangin_patchouli



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Fluffy, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, NCT Dream - Freeform, NCT U, Really fluffy, chenle/lucas, nct - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-10
Updated: 2018-03-10
Packaged: 2019-03-29 01:01:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,549
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13916022
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bangin_patchouli/pseuds/bangin_patchouli
Summary: “hyung, come here,” chenle calls from the couch.





	i'm older

**Author's Note:**

> this was written at 12 am on two nights, nothing sexual at all, don't bully me because chenle is a dreamie!! this is just pure lovins and cuteness and im finally uploading smth yeehaw

      “hyung, come here,” chenle calls from the couch, voice overtaken by the one a.m. darkness that crowds in from outside the windows. he watches as lucas passes through the hallway that overlaps his own dorms, from the living room; the dim lamp light catches a blonde highlight in the older’s hair. lucas stops, feet stumbling unintentionally as he turns to stand just out of the light, eyes half open as they train partially on the blonde boy on the couch. chenle resists the frown of empathy that attempts to force itself onto his lips as he looks at lucas where he stands. the older, while not the darkest of sorts normally, looks pallid, even in the shadow of the doorway, all color absent from the usual blush of rapture that resides on his cheeks. his shoulders seem to be slanted at a fixed angle toward the floor, like he's got a bag of sand of equal weight to his body placed upon him. his hands are empty, chenle's sure he's lost his phone again, and they lie still and limp at his sides. the navy colored costume suit that all u's members' had donned not even an hour before had been since replaced by loose grey (old) sweats and a plain red long sleeve -- it looked too thin to be wearing without a jacket outside, from where lucas had just come. chenle felt more than obligated.

      "i'm serious, xuxi," he says, this time in chinese, just to truly catch lucas' attention. the shuffled steps lucas takes seem to be akin to those of a turtle, but chenle does nothing but wait patiently, sweatpants-covered knee pulled up to his chest and held in place by his arms. up this close, with all of the stage makeup long removed, chenle can see the new purple crescent under both of the older's eyes, and how his eyes seem to droop into a state of sleepwalking all together.

      "what," lucas mumbles, and chenle then releases the strong frown that had been waiting behind his lips. lucas' voice, while quiet, is small in size and strangled-sounding, like he'd been belting high notes all night; well, he wasn't doyoung, or jungwoo. not on his first track at least, not in a place other than the confines of their dorm.

      "what do you mean what?" chenle utters, sounding unlike himself enough to fake a disdainful laugh. he pats two times the empty space on the couch cushion beside him. "sit down."

      "chenle," lucas breathes, more of a whine that chenle wishes he could laugh at. "i just wanna go to sleep."

      "you can. come here." chenle pats the couch again, gentler this time, and with a twitch of his lip that looks oddly like the beginning of a pout, lucas pivots roughly and, even more roughly, settles himself in a collapsed, slumping position next to the younger boy. "that wasn't so hard."

      "i'm older than you," lucas grumbles, crossing his thinly covered arms over his slowly rising and falling chest, nearly unfocused eyes trained on the dim yellow nothingness in front of him. he's slumped on the back of the couch below chenle, and the latter looks down silently to lucas' face as he tries to keep it stone cold. chenle  softens his gaze inadvertently, breathing out and tilting his head toward the right. lightly, he stretches a hand out, and up, straight out, until its a centimeter from lucas' face, and then touching, softly, brushing the hair from the older's forehead. chenle doesn't need to say that it's an excuse to feel lucas' forehead, and he doesn't try to hold back the muted surprise when he finds the skin there to be warmer than it should be.

      "i don't know how to administer medicine," chenle says, more to himself than to lucas. "i don't even know if we have any."

      "i don't need it," lucas says, and chenle immediately retracts his hand a bit to place it a bit more firmly onto lucas' shoulder.

      "listen, i might be younger, but -," chenle begins, readying his  _i'm sorry but i know what i'm doing, lucas_ speech, but the offending latter cuts him off with a gruff,

      "no, i mean i already got some," he says at a near whisper. "jungwoo knows how to use that shit- ah, i mean, that stuff. i'm fine."

      chenle settles back into the position with bad posture, formerly firm hand relaxing to rest reassuringly over lucas' surprisingly narrow shoulder. he feels his look soften again, and with this image of lucas beside him, all pouting lips and crossed arms, he wonders how their age difference adds up to three years. he can't help it when he reaches his hand delicately around lucas' shoulders, and he can't stop the sympathetic smile, albeit small, that takes over his lips when lucas lets himself fall silently to rest again chenle's side, a tall deadweight on the younger's shoulder. chenle doesn't mind, won't mind.

      "i'm not scared, but," lucas begins, louder than before, less clear, and he catches chenle off guard at the sudden change in mood. "but i'm scared," he continues, softer, "that i won't be able to do it."

      chenle feels his heart sink just a bit. "do what?"

      lucas gestures a halfhearted hand out in front of him. "this. how am i supposed to be good at it if i get sick during the promotions of debut?" he asks, the hopelessness of late-night, fever induced thoughts dripping through his tone. his hand drops back down, and chenle moves to pick it back up and take it into his, a physical token of his concern and understanding coming in the form of a smaller thumb rubbing across the top of lucas' cold hand.

      "you're not alone in this," chenle whispers, letting his hand move independently from lucas' opposite shoulder to rise and hold gently the side of the older's head, and lucas sinks further. "xuxi, if you think you are, i promise you, we don't mean for it to seem like-"

      "no, you don't. it's not you, i just," lucas' voice is below volume now, the words just riding on his exhalations as he breathes, "get scared sometimes. it's okay."

      "hey," chenle says, letting a sliver of playfulness back into his tone, "i'm supposed to be telling you that right now." he feels the deep vibrations of lucas' laugh in his own side rather than hears them, and lets one of his own, higher giggles loose before settling the silence with a mild kiss to the top of lucas' head. "it's okay."

      chenle watches lucas as he turns his head down, knows why he does it; he's the kind of person that doesn't know what to do when someone shows their worry over him. he knows lucas' eyes are glued to his lap, knows his cheeks might have color now, can feel the older's fingers fiddling with chenle's own, but he wraps his arm farther around lucas' shoulders, feeling the latter's blond hairs tickle the underside of his chin. for someone of his stature, lucas fits well under the curve of chenle's arms around him and on top of the flank of his side. the older's excessive warmth begins to spread to chenle, shutting down his senses quickly and bringing on a sense of heaviness.

      "i'm tired," lucas whispers, voice rougher than before.

      "lie down," chenle offers, more so tells him, and lucas shifts to face him from a downward angle. his eyes ask  _where?,_ and chenle pats his own lap, smiling slightly at the expression that belatedly dons lucas' face. "right here. i said you could sleep here, didn't i?"

      "yeah, i guess." lucas shifts again, nearly elbowing chenle in the side. he curls his long legs in, hand bracing over chenle's knee, and the latter lets him situate on his own, hands awaiting their coming position over lucas in the air. lucas' hair splays over chenle's sweatpants, his hands curling lightly into weak fists on top of the younger's thighs, and the cold creeps slowly back to chenle's side where lucas' heated body is now missing, and falls instantly over his lap instead. lucas' fingers inch to grasp onto the fabric of chenle's pants, like he would hold his sheets, and chenle lets his forearm fall to rest over lucas' shoulder and guides the other hand to card into the latter's blonde locks.

      "are you comfortable?" chenle asks softly, and he only gets a surly  _mmm_ in return. his hands brush through lucas' dyed hair, and he feels the older letting his body become weight down by sleep over top his lap. he traces his other hand down lucas' warm back, combining the soothing notions until the older's breathing evens visibly. 

      chenle looks down, somewhat solemnly, at the boy asleep on his lap, and suddenly feels the need to laugh. lucas is older, three years the difference, but for some reason, he feels like the one who needs to take care of him. he isn't sure if it's because he's been doing this longer, or just because lucas gives off the aura of a boy who's no idea what he's meant to be doing, or both, or something else. he won't move, though, not as long as lucas needs him there.


End file.
